Eating alive, not killing

[Aislinn]

Hey All,

Has anyone had a problem with their snake not killing prey? My amel started off eating frozen pinkies, but then I moved her to live pinkies/fuzzies because a) the pet store I get the mice at feeds them fresh veggies and fruit and b) my amel didn't care for the frozen mice. Since she's been eating the live pinkies she's been a much more active snake, behavior wise and appetite wise. The only problem is she has yet to kill her prey. I figured that this was because the prey was to small to kill, but the last meal I fed her was a good sized fuzzie and she ate it alive. That is probably going to be her last live meal because I don't want to jeopardize the safety of my snake as the prey gets larger and it's a horrible way to die for the mouse. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I posted a video of the last meal I was talking about on YouTube! if you want to see it.

FYI it's not for mice lovers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eveRlfzMatk


Thanks,

Kevin

[stuart]

Im no expert on feeding live, simply because I dont myself. But did the snake hunt down the mouse (was the mouse running inside the tank) or did you hand the mouse to the snake with forceps? MAYBE thats what it is, but like I said Im no expert on this subject so Id still wait for an experienced reply before going up to larger live mice.

[Meeghann]

Put the mouse in a bag and bang it up against the wall to knock it out. But if the snake was eating frozen in the first place I would stick with that. Safer that way. I feed frozen except when I run out and have to use live from the petstore. Thats when I just knock them out or kill them first. A adult mouse can do some damage.

I looked at some other videos on that site. This one guy had a couple videos of his snakes eating on his hand. I wonder if one has latched to his finger yet......... :dunce:

[DaemoNox]

A lot of snakes wont kill pinks or fuzzies before eating, theyre is really no reason for them too. In an effort to save energy for when they really need it they often just start swallowing; they prey isnt going to run away from them, nor is it going to hurt them which they know. What triggers the constriction response is movement, if the rodent starts to rapidly thrash around as it does when it gets older automaticly they start wrapping around it and squeezing. If the snake is a good feeder and not afraid of you what you can do is with forceps grab the fuzzy after the snake has it and start moving it a bit just to see that the snake does know what its doing. Trust their natural instincts, even through countless generations of captive breeding these snakes still have survival deeply ingrained into them.

The only time I have ever heard of an adult being swallowed alive is when the pwner 'stunned' the mouse instead of pre-killing it, in which it wakes up in the middle of being swallowed.

[El Guapo]

My Honduran was a VERY good eater and NEVER killed his food, the largest I ever fed her live were fuzzies, good sized ones at that. They never thrashed around but would definitely try to get away, but she would just go right up to them and start chowing down. I was particularly sad when when she started on the wrong end and they would try to pull away. No I don't like torturing animals but unless I wanted to pay like $6.00 for 3 frozen at Pet-co, all that was/is available are live from the only other pet store in town. I started to pre-kill them and continue to do so but really haven't found a humane way. I just cant seem to get the trick with the pencil behind the neck and pull the tail to work so I usually just bash them over the head with with the end of a pencil or pen. I know this sounds cruel be to be just gobled up alive seems much worse.